Music Director Peter Bennett, who joined the CWRU Music Faculty in 2005, brings both scholarly and performance expertise to Quire Cleveland. A former organ scholar at Cambridge, Dr. Bennett studied organ and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik, Vienna, and harpsichord at Academia Chigiana, Siena. He later received his D.Phil. in Music from Oxford University with a dissertation on early 17th-century French sacred music, his research now centers on the music and institutions associated with Louis XIII’s Paris. As founder and director of Ensemble Dumont—a consort of singers, viols and continuo—he has appeared widely in the UK and Europe, performing at the Bruges and Innsbruck Early Music Festivals, the MDR-Sommer Festival, the Wigmore Hall, London, broadcasting on the BBC, RAI (Italy), MDR and SWR (Germany), and R3 (Belgium). His CDs of Dumont and Frémart for Linn Records have been received with critical acclaim.

Dana Clearwater received her Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance at Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Berea, Ohio, studying with Joanne Uniatowski. At the Boston Conservatory, she studied voice with Samuel Yanovsky and composition with world-renowned composer Larry Bell. Other voice teachers include Lillian Lee, Hazel Graham, and Mary Kirby. Dana’s
solo performances include Mozart’s Impresario (Madame Silverklang), Handel’s Messiah, Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning, Charpentier’s Midnight Mass for French Carols, Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s Magnificat in D, and Conrad Susa’s Carols and Lullabies from the Southwest. Among the conductors under whom she has sung are Stuart Raleigh, Peter Atherton, Craig Dieterich, Ray Adams, Brady Johnson, Michael Carter, and Dale Reith. Currently, Dana lives in Berea, where she is Music Director and Soloist for the Berea First Church of Christ Scientist. She is also a member of the early music ensemble Cantores Cleveland.

Ian Crane is a high school music teacher, performer, and student. He currently teaches choir and band at Benedictine High School in Cleveland, and previously spent five years on faculty at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, as instructor of bagpipes. He has performed with many local groups, including Apollo’s Fire, the Choir of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, and What’s Next?, a barbershop quartet. Ian earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Cleveland State University and is working on his master’s in choral conducting from Kent State University. He resides in Lakewood, Ohio, with his wife Tricia and daughter Phoebe.

Ross W. Duffin was born in London, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario there. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University where he specialized in the performance practice of early music. He came to Case Western Reserve in 1978 to direct the nationally recognized early music program, and now serves as interim chair of the Music Department there. Duffin has made a name for himself as a scholar in a wide range of repertoires, publishing articles on music from the 13th to the 18th centuries. His edition of DuFay chansons won the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society for work of benefit to both scholars and performers, and his edition of Josquin motets was published in 1998 by Oxford University Press. Other “vocal” publications include the award-winning Shakespeare’s Songbook (W. W. Norton, 2004), a study of all the songs from Shakespeare’s plays, and an edition of motets from the Jacobean period from A-R Editions. Duffin’s love of vocal ensemble singing has a familial background, since his grandfather, William Nelson, was a professional countertenor in London, England, and was soloist for Harold Darke and later Herbert Murrill. Duffin has sung with Apollo’s Fire since its inception in 1992. He also directs the Early Music Singers at Case.

Donna Fagerhaug holds a Master of Arts degree in Church Music from Trinity Lutheran Seminary and a Bachelor’s of Music from the Conservatory at Capital University, both in Columbus, Ohio. Locally, she sings with Apollo’s Singers, and has been a member and frequent soloist with the Cleveland Lutheran Acappella Choir, of which she has also served as an Assistant Director. Highlights of her solo career include the role of “Birdie” in Blitzstein’s Regina, and the recent regional premier of J. S. Bach’s newly discovered aria, Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn Ihn. She is Director of Music Ministries at Euclid Lutheran Church, where she strives to represent music of the Church of all times and places. Besides her classical training in the Western European languages, Donna has also sung in Spanish, Hebrew, Swahili, Xhosa, Chinese, Korean, and Urdu. In the past, she has taught both elementary music and high school choir and even had a short stint as a torch singer. Donna resides in a 93-year-old farmhouse in Richmond Heights, Ohio, with her husband and three children.